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President Zelensky said his ten-year-old son was struggling with not having ‘warm moments’ with his father during the conflict in Ukraine.
Survival expert Bear Grylls travelled through Ukraine to meet Zelensky in Kyiv in November 2022, for an interview broadcast on Channel 4.
The Ukrainian leader also said Russian soldiers had raped children in front of their parents and that thousands of children had been ‘deported’ to Russia from occupied territories.
He described the first day of the full-scale invasion as the ‘hardest moment’ in the fighting so far and said that some officials hadn’t believed that there would be an invasion until the very last minute.
Since the beginning of the war Zelensky has often been far from his own family and he told Grylls that his then nine-year-old son, Kyrylo, was finding it difficult to be separated from his father.
The Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky (left) told Bear Grylls (right) Russian soldiers had raped children in front of their parents and that thousands of children had been ‘deported’ to Russia
The Ukrainian leader shares two children with his wife Olena, who he met when he was 17, son Kyrylo and daughter Oleksandra, 19
President Zelensky said: ‘Sometimes, I have four to six hours to be with them [his family]. It’s very hard for my son, because you know, this age, so for him it’s a really tough situation because he needs father and we don’t have enough warm moments.
But the now ten-year-old Kyrylo is also proud, the President said: ‘He’s in the solider form. He loves it. He’s always ready.
‘This war also changed our people and changed our children. They are not children they are adults.’
The Ukrainian leader shares two children with his wife Olena, who he met when he was 17, son Kyrylo and daughter Oleksandra, 18.
In the interview with Bear Grylls, the Ukrainian leader accused Russian forces of raping Ukrainian children and deporting thousands, leaving occupied villages decimated.
‘They raped children. They wanted mothers and fathers to see it. So it was terrible and this was shocking really.
‘People always ask, how many people have been killed by Russians and I always say that nobody knows.’
UN experts accused Russian forces in September 2022 of raping children as young as four after a team from the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine investigated alleged war crimes in Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy.
Zelensky says of his own childhood that he ‘had a different dream every day’ and did not want to be an actor when he was young.
‘Like all the kids, maybe with a little bit more power and speed because I was always running, not to waste time.
The Ukrainian leader shares two children with his wife Olena (right), who he met when he was 17, son Kyrylo, 10, (bottom) and daughter Oleksandra, 19 (top)
Zelensky said of his own childhood that he had a ‘different dream every morning’ and that he ran around everywhere
The security forces that accompanied the President and Bear Grylls on their walk through Kyiv in November 2022
Zelensky meets a wounded soldier. The Ukrainian leader explained the toll the war was taking on his own family to the television presenter Bear Grylls
Burnt out Russian tanks. Grylls also visited Irpin, near the capital Kyiv, which came under heavy bombardment in the early days of the invasion
‘I think each morning I had another dream.’
He responded to a question about the ‘hardest moment’ in the conflict so far with a thoughtful silence before saying: ‘The first day.’
Zelensky added that the Ukrainian people had responded with incredible bravery and courage to the invasion in February
‘Great, great honour. How strong they are, how really when the Russians attacked our people and the Russians thought if they attack more and more our people would be shocked and afraid, our people would be shocked and afraid.
‘The more they fought and the more they attacked us, the stronger our people became.’
The President takes Grylls to a warming station, where Ukrainians still in Kyiv could go for warmth and electricity during the many blackouts caused by Russian air strikes.
They share some chocolates with the presidential security team, who Grylls revealed after the interview were suspicious of the sweet treat.
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The pair shared a tea from a warming station in a public park but Grylls caused concern when he offered Zelensky chocolate, as his security team worried it was poisoned
The President takes Grylls to a warming station, where Ukrainians still in Kyiv could go for warmth and electricity during the blackouts
He said that during the first days of very cold weather last winter, Russia had attacked with 78 missiles in just two hours.
‘People never thought, I think, that they could be attacked from the sky in the 21st century. It’s a tragedy but anyway people are ready.’
He said many of his personal friends and their wives and families, who had left when Russia launched the full-scale invasion, had now returned to their home country.
Zelensky impressed upon Grylls the strength of Ukrainian belief in their own cause.
‘We have to. We don’t have another way and we don’t have to have a way out and we don’t want to life with their flag.
President Zelensky has become the face of the conflict, Grylls says, as he sets off on a long journey to the capital to interview him (Zelensky, centre, with Ukrainian forces)
‘All we defend, we love it, and they don’t love it, they hate it, and that has never been their homeland, it’s our homeland.
‘That really saved Ukraine. This attitude to the country, the people’s attitude.’
The wartime Ukrainian leader said that there was a ‘long list’ of things needed for peace and added that he didn’t think the fighting would end until Putin was ‘alone’.
‘I think it will not come, because it will come. You have to work for peace; you have to fight for peace. That’s really the situation.
‘You have to fight for the victory. When Putin will feel that he is not strong, that he is alone, then peace will come.’
In the hour-long documentary, Grylls can also be seen crossing the Ukrainian border with his security and filming team, placing his phone into a Farady cage to stop the phone signals being tracked.
The Chief Scout also visited Irpin, a town near Kyiv that was a key battleground early in the invasion.
He spoke to a journalist local to Kyiv, Elina Polyakova, whose father has died in the conflict. She expressed her grief and her sorrow that he will never be a grandfather.
Bear Grylls interviewed a Ukrainian family who had returned to their home country and presented a new Scout badge to their son (pictured)
Grylls was gifted Peremoha tea to drink on the occasion of the Ukrainian victory by the family he met there
‘We will cry, after the victory. And it will be the tears of happiness,’ she said.
He also spoke to a Ukrainian family who had returned to the country, after finding it too difficult, living abroad.
He presented the newest scout badge – a never give up badge – to the children of the family, who are Scouts.
Grylls was gifted tea to drink on the occasion of the Ukrainian victory by the family.
Bear Grylls is an experienced interviewer and has previously had discussions with U.S. President Barak Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Bear Grylls also spoke to a journalist local to Kyiv, Elina Polyakova, whose father has died in the conflict. She said she was devastated that he wouldn’t get to be a grandfather and held back tears during their interview
Bear is one of several celebrities that have been invited to Ukraine to show their support.
The most recent was Pirates of the Caribbean star Orlando Bloom, who praised the ‘incredibly stoic nature’ of the Ukrainian people and encouraged Zelensky to ‘go win’ the war.
The pair were seen in footage in the capital’s presidential palace, where they discussed humanitarian projects and reconstruction efforts to help the children of Ukraine.
In addition to Kyiv, Bloom visited Irpin and Demydiv.
